Web Wagglin' With Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions Wii

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A short update on the Wii version's few unique controls.

By Anthony Gallegos

We've previewed Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions a lot at IGN, but until now we'd never gotten a chance to check out the Wii version for ourselves. It shares the same content as the 360/PS3 versions of the game -- right down to the voice talent and level design, this is the exact same game you can read about here -- but it features some unique controls. So how do the controls fare? Is web-slinging with the Wii remote any damn fun?

I'll get to my experience in just a minute, but first allow me to catch up first-time readers with what this game is all about. Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions' plot is all about the consequences of the destruction of a magical tablet, which in turn has caused several dimensions to come into contact with one another. The result is a situation that forces different versions of Spider-Man from several well known comic worlds to interact with one another in order to save what we collectively know as existence.

Sounds heavy, right? In practice it comes across more like a convenient excuse for them to put the Noir, Ultimate, Amazing, and 2099 Spider-Man comic universes together in one game. The bad thing would have been simply re-skinning each universe so that it has the stylistic trappings of the corresponding comic, but thankfully the developers put a lot more effort into it. Each universe in the game plays very differently from one another, with the Noir universe being a stealth area, while the Ultimate is much more in-your-face action oriented. The goal isn't to make four separate games -- you are, after all, still Spider-Man in each world -- but the hope is that each universe will have a different pacing that can mix together into one story that never grows tiring.

So as stated previously, the Wii version is content identical to the 360/PS3 versions, with the only real difference being the controls. And really, the only major difference between the Wii and other versions' controls is that they occasionally implement motions. For instance in the Noir universe I had to yank back with the Wii remote and nunchuck to rip off doors, or sometimes quickly shake the nunchuck to do a stealth take down. In truth the Wii motion and pointing controls are used sparingly, only filling in where it makes sense due to the lack of similar button layout between the Wii and 360/PS3 controllers.

If you find the occasional shake of a controller -- or moment where you have to point the remote at the screen -- to be annoying, then this version might turn you off, but really it's not all that intrusive. If you only own a Wii and are eagerly awaiting Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions then you should thank your lucky stars. A lot of other times you'd have been saddled with a lesser version of a game that's made by a completely different developer, sharing only a name with the game you've read about time and time again. This time around, however, you've got the real deal, a game on par in every way it can be with its 360/PS3 cousins.